In a week it’ll be a month since the release of Crossing Acheron! I’m so grateful for the response it’s gotten so far. I’m sending this email out to address a teensy weensy issue that some readers have spotted concerning Malachy’s employment status (y’all can be nitpicky, and I love it). SO I’m here to clarify it once and for all.

Malachy is a legal assistant in the state of California. He works at a legal firm that specializes in victim’s rights and advocacy. Before meeting Marcellus, he’d been there almost a year, which would’ve qualified him to work as a paralegal. His boss has a soft spot for him, and she wanted to keep him long-term (foiled by Marcellus)!

That being said, in college, Malachy was–naturally–pre-law. He majored in Philosophy and minored in History. When Malachy calls himself a historian, he is referring to his hobby, not a career. He’s a big nerd and enjoys reading and research.

So where does music fit into this? And just why does he know so much stuff?

Malachy’s actual dream is to be a musician. He’s a classically-trained pianist and a guitarist. He writes and composes his own music. The thing is, he hasn’t made a career of it. Much like his relationship with academia, music is a hobby. Maybe this will change one day.

These things don’t come up often in Crossing Acheron because, fairly, Malachy has many other more important things on his mind, BUT his career and lack thereof becomes a point of interest in the next book. It is also touched upon more in depth in the prequel story, Riverbanks.

This is the obligatory reminder that there’s a prequel! It’s fun! It’s dramatic! It broadens your understanding of Malachy and the events of Crossing Acheron! And it’s free! (Go sign up for my newsletter if you haven’t!)

Now about those changes I made? It’s nothing requiring a reread. This was flagged as a concern by one of my precious beta readers, and I had thought I clarified it but clearly not well enough! I’ll document the changes I made here for posterity, and I’ll do it in the style of video game patch notes because why not.

Patch 1.01 Notes

• Added sentence revealing minor in History (Chapter 7)
  • “Malachy fancied himself an amateur historian, and his academic career only fanned the flame in him. Minoring in the subject wasn’t extra work—it was fun.” 
• Fixed wording suggesting historian was a job instead of a hobby (Chapter 7)
  • “And even as a hobbyist, he often found himself deep in historical documents.”
• Replaced ‘musician’ with ‘paralegal’ (Chapter 31)
  • “This car cost more than he’d be able to make in years—or lifetimes—on the salary of a now-unemployed paralegal.”

That was fun! If there’s anything else you found confusing or odd, you should totally send it my way. It is genuinely helpful to me, and I also get to write posts like this which is fun (unlike my day job work I should be doing instead wink emoji).

-Mercury